Another day, another landing. Today's location was the city of Heraklion, on the North coast of Crete. It was another day when I didn't expect to see anything worthwhile on the Bird front and I decided not to take the proper camera with me, so all the photos are taken with the phone camera. First light saw us making our final approaches into the harbour and therefore there wasn't any opportunity for surveying. However, we were on deck as usual looking, just in case we could see anything of interest.
We were making our final approach to the harbour at first light
Looking across to the city centre and the old harbour: The old harbour is guarded by the Koules Fortress
Our plan for the day was to borrow electric bikes from the ship and to explore the city with them. As members of the entertainment team, we were allowed to request them. However, there is always the risk of a late request from some of the passengers, in which case, we would lose out. We went down at nine and fortunately, they were still available. First, I needed to complete my electric bike cycling training, which took a few minutes on the quayside to master how they worked. A bit fiddly starting out cycling the very heavy & study bike, before the power kicked in, but they were straight-forward to use. We were soon cycling the couple of miles to the city centre. The bike had a top speed of fifteen mph. We weren't going flat out, as we started cycling on the pavements, before being forced onto the road. But it didn't take us long to get to the Natural History Museum, which was our first destination.
A map of Crete in the Museum: I've added a red dot showing the location of Heraklion. The island is about one hundred and sixty miles in length and thirty-seven miles at its widest point
The Natural History Museum was well laid out in a restored industrial building that used to house an electricity power plan. Its stated aim is to highlight the Natural History and Geology of Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean. However, some of the exhibits were surprising, given they had no connection to this region. I can't help thinking that these could have been replaced with more appropriate exhibits.
Short-toed Eagle: Doing what they do best, feeding on Snakes
Eagle Owl: I saw my first Eagle Owls in the Avas Gorge in mainland Greece on my first foreign trip back in July 1983. It's a species that doesn't seem to occur on Crete
Hazelhen: A species that occurs in mainland Greece
Capercaillie: A species that only occurs in mainland Greece
Wild Boar: They occur on Crete, as well as, mainland Greece
Red-necked Terrapin: One of the most invasive species of Reptiles in the world
One floor was dedicated to Dinosaurs, but it was a pity that most of the main exhibits had little or no relationship to Greece or the Eastern Mediterranean.
Ankylosaurus magniventris: This was an impressive animated model of species that dated to about sixty-eight to sixty–six million years ago. However, fossils have only been found in the West of American and Canada
Karen reading about Torosaurus latus: This is another species which has only been found in the West of American and Canada and they were around in a similar period to Ankylosaurus magniventris. There seems to be an ongoing debate as to how closely related the Torosaurus genus is related to the better known Triceratops genus
Stegosaurus armatus: The various Stegosaurus species were around in North America, Europe and Asia between one hundred and fifty-five million years and one hundred and forty-five million years ago. It is now considered that Stegosaurus armatus is probably not a valid species, but it probably one of the other Stegosaurus species
Megaraptor namunhuaiquii: This is another species that has only been found in the New World, but this time it's Argentina. They occurred from ninety-four million years to eighty-three million years ago
Having had a good look around the Natural History Museum, the others were keen to look around the town area. I was keen to go back in time and headed off to Knossos. I can remember seeing programs on the TV about the extensive ruins of the Palace of Minos, which date back to 1900 BC. It was a major Minoan Palace until its destruction in 1350 BC. The Minoan civilisation developed from the local Neolithic culture around 3100 BC on Crete and started to build larger urban settlements from 2000 BC. They were the first major civilization in Europe, until the mainland Mycenaean Greeks civilisation developed around 1450 BC. The Mycenaeans went on to dominate the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Palace of Minos site is a large site: The main building is roughly square with sides of about one hundred and fifty metres. There are plenty of other archaeological remains over the neighbouring area
There are three large circular pits near the entrance dating from 1900 - 1700 BC: They are known as the Kouloures. Their use is uncertain, but suggestions include they were grain storage pits or rubbish pits for sacred offerings
Arthur Evans: Oxford archaeologist Arthur Evans bought the site in 1900. He and his team began long-term evacuations from 1900 to 1913. Evans resumed the excavations between 1922 to 1930. He was responsible for much of the excavations at the site, which had been partially excavated in the previous twenty-seven years, albeit the Ottoman authorities had not allowed much digging during that period. He is credited for discovering the Minoan Civilization, but his work was also controversial due to the inaccurate and irreversible reconstructions he authorised on the site
There are extensive walls all around the site: There are over one thousand rooms within the Palace complex
A multi-floor reconstruction: One of the signs indicated some of these reconstructions used concrete. The authorities are looking at renovating some of these areas, using a more realistic mortar that would have been used in the original construction
Another area of reconstruction: These are good in they try to bring areas of low walls back to life. However, it would be good to know how accurate the authorities believe these to be
Another reconstruction: These areas at least help to give an idea of how the buildings might have looked
Modern archaeologists have also queried how realistic some of these paintings are: The feeling is a number were made up by the artists a century ago
These storage vessels were four or five feet high: They would have held oil, wine and grain
Another area of reconstruction
The painting in the last photo
More rooms on the hillside: Around 1350 BC, the palace was destroyed. The building was ravaged by a fire which triggered the collapse of the upper stories. It is not known whether this final destruction was intentional or the result of a natural disaster
Another area that has been renovated
The Dolphin mural: Both the ancient Greeks and Romans held Dolphins in high regard and Knossos had one of the earliest known murals of Dolphins. This is a modern copy of a reconstructed mural by the artist Piet de Jong who painted it between 1922 and 1930. The original reconstructed mural is on display at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum
Evans believed this was the Throne Room within the Palace: Is was named based upon the stone throne that he discovered during the excavation. He thought this chamber was used for religious and ceremonial purposes during the 15th century BC. Some archaeologists believe this room and the wall paintings date to the time of the Mycenaean takeover from 1450 BC
The room next to the Throne Room
Another reconstructed part of the site: It may appear from this Blog Post that much of the site has been reconstruction. That isn't the case, it's more a case I took more photos of the reconstructed parts, than of the low walls within the site
Another reconstructed part of the site
One final photo from the Palace of Minos
After a good look around the Palace of Minos, I decided to head back to Heraklion and have a look around the old harbour.
A Dolphin statue by the Venetian harbour
Venetian Shipyards: In 1204, the Republic of Venice bought the city of Heraklion and they administered it until 1669. In 1669, it was finally captured by the Ottomans after a twenty-one year siege. These are some of the old Venetian Shipyards that were used to build and maintain their ships
The old Venetian harbour is now only used by small pleasure craft: The main port is a couple of miles to the East
The Koules Fortress: This is one the Venetian defences for the old harbour
The Koules Fortress: It was built between 1523 and 1540 and enhanced in 1630. However, it was outgunned by the Ottomans during the siege of the city
The Koules Fortress looking from the seaward side of the breakwater
I timed my return to the ship well, so that I could get a late lunch in the top deck buffet. This allowed a bit of time to catch up with a few things before I headed up to the top deck to watch our departure. There wasn't any time for surveying by the time we were leaving the port.
Heading out to sea at last light: We had a day at sea before our next destination of Palermo in Sicily
